Violence as an expression of free will in A Clockwork OrangeThis essay will deal with the subject of free choice, which is the main subject of the novel, A Clockwork Orange. This important problem is already signaled in the very first line of the text when an unknown voice asks Alex - and thereby certainly the reader - "What's it going to be then, huh?" (13). Repeated at the beginning of Part Two and at the beginning of the very last chapter of Part Three, this question sets the thematic framework of the book. He asks the protagonist what he will choose, good or evil. Likewise, he invites the reader to also reflect on his own choice (14). Anthony Burgess focuses intensely on this problem in “A Clockwork Orange.” In his own words, the book "was intended to be a kind of treatise, even a sermon, on the importance of the power of choice." (15)He thus writes the story of Alex, an anti-hero deprived of his capacity for free choice and condemned to meekness, whether he likes it or not. But now his moral convictions are no longer really altered. Alex hasn't recognized his failures, he's just incapable of committing a crime even if he wanted to. Furthermore, he is an ambiguous character. On the one hand, Alex is a sadistic criminal, guilty of murder and rape and fascinated by acts of senseless destruction. At the same time, he is a very smart and intelligent boy, deeply interested in music and language. His adoration for classical music and his elaborate use of the “Nadsat” dialect endear him to the reader. Burgess intends to make him sympathetic, because we must feel pity when Alex is mistreated in the last two parts of the novel. Thus the author for...... middle of article......, (1965), S. 171-17710. Hahn, Ronald M. and Volker Jansen. Uhrwerk Orange, in: Hahn, Ronald M. and Volker Jansen. Cult film: from “Metropolis” to “Rocky Horror Picture Show”. 4. Auflage. Munich: Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1990, (1985), S. 293-30311. Kagan, Nornan. A Clockwork Orange, in: Kagan, Norman. The cinema of Stanley Kubrick. New expanded edition. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1989, (1972), S.167-18712. Melchior, Claus. Zeittafel zu Leben et Werk von Anthony Burgess, in: Burgess, Anthony. A clockwork orange. 1. Auflage. Stuttgart: Phillip Reclam June 1992, S. 247-24913. Melchior, Christmas. Nachwort, in: Burgess, Anthony. A clockwork orange. 1. Auflage. Stuttgart: Phillip Reclam jun., 1992, S. 251-26014. Rabinovitz, Rubin: Ethical Values ​​in A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, in: Studies in the Novel, 11 (1979) S. 43-50